Merz vows to stay on, promises reforms

A chastened, worried-looking Chancellor Friedrich Merz has told the German people he will not step down as leader of his party or the nation, despite poor performances in two state elections over the weekend.

Merz, who has been chancellor for 16 months, described the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, success in a poll in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania — and his party's failure to secure 5 percent of the vote — as a "disaster".

But he said he would not resign as leader of either the nation or the center-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU. "The reforms have to come," he said in a televised address from the CDU's Berlin headquarters. "I am taking on this responsibility, because I want to move our country forward."

He said the AfD's success in the election means his party must show "backbone, steadfastness, and patience" and work with partners in Germany's coalition government to advance economic, tax, and welfare reforms.

"I will demonstrate this as CDU party chairman and, above all, as chancellor of our country," he said. "I would even go so far as to say that these reforms are the antidote to the authoritarian poison that, with the fascination of authoritarianism, is penetrating ever deeper into our society."

While the AfD looked set to secure the most votes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the party was not on course to land a commanding majority and would need to work with other parties to form a government. Because of its extremist anti-immigrant platform, other parties have ruled out working with it, setting up the prospect of the center-left Social Democratic Party forming a coalition government with left-wing allies.

Merz's difficulties were not limited to the coastal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; the CDU was also on course of losing control of Berlin to Die Linke, or The Left.

Both local elections were held on Sunday and followed a poll two weeks earlier in Saxony-Anhalt that halved the CDU's share of the vote and saw the AfD win.

While Merz has vowed not to quit, experts say he could face pressure from within his party amid several months of poor approval ratings.

Alice Weidel, one of the AfD's two party leaders, rejected Germany's intelligence service describing the party as a right-wing extremist entity and responded to Merz's defiance by saying, "We are the strongest force and have reached the mainstream of the population."

German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD predicted on Monday the AfD would win in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania while the CDU was on course to record its worst result there since World War II.